Merry Xmas y'all

I'm finally recovering from my yearly cold. Every single christmas I get a cold, this year no exception. It's a great tradition my body has. But anyway, merry xmas to everybody who reads this! Next planned trip is Brussels in January, but it might be something else before that. Allt the best!

Publunch

Just came back from a publunch with Malcolm, the guy I'm working with here in London. I just love sitting down in an old pub with friends eating, having a pint of Stella an chatting, then back to the office. It should be a mandatory thing in Sweden. But I guess we couldn't do that with our drinking culture since many of us would just stay there until we get pissed and need medical attention.

Link extravaganza

Almost christmas and I've only bought one gift so far, to my grandma. I'm the last-minute-shopper but I'm gonna try and change that for this year (yea right). There are quite a few sites where you can buy an experience, a great gift instead of that same old pair of socks to dad and books to mom. Since I don't live in the UK I had to skip one or two of the sites and focus on the ones in Sweden. So here's a tip for y'all that'd like to buy something more creative.

Mun tena yie

Mun tena yie means Stay well in Twi, a Ghanian dialect. So, Mun tena yie Mark, Joseph, Wash, Angelo and all the others for making my stay in Ghana so pleasant.

Last night started at a bar in a colonial building located in the airport residential. Despite the name it's actually one of the most quiet and nicest areas in Accra. Two beers later me, Mark and mr. lova lova (Joseph Glover) went to an Italian restaurant with the ingenious name "Mama Mia". If you're going to Accra and would like to eat pizza, this is the place you want to go. It's definitely one of the best pizza's I've had - and I have a lot of experience on pizza.

The table next to us was crowded with students from the US and Kanada. In the middle of all "hi Bob!" and "that's soooo great" I heard two girls speaking Swedish and Norweigan. A few minutes later, me and Sarah from Uppsala were laughing out loud on how funny it was that we were able to speak Swedish to a person in Ghana. The night ended at a sportsbar called "Champs" where I (a few beers happier) strongly advertised snus as the best kept secret for mankind and that this secret is only obtainable in Sweden.

Amount of victims in my advertising campaign: 10-20
Amount of people trying snus: 4
These people's origin: USA and Canada

"Snusing" in Ghana

Me and Mark went to the bar yesterday. Interestingly enough this woman stood in front of our table dancing and yelling at herself for like an hour. She was pretty high to say the least.

We sat outside and it was about 30 degrees, for a Swede that's a real treat in December. So me and Mark came to the conclusion that all you really need in life is a cold beer and a snus.

Wherever I travel in the world, being the generous guy that I am, I always treat people to a snus. So far Göteborgs Rapé (a snus brand) has been tested and approved by locals in Serbia, Mauritius, Australia, UK, USA and Ghana. Apparently snus would have a great future in Ghana since Mark and the others constantly ask me for more.

The rumour says that Mats Sundin, one of Sweden's best ice hockey players, was interviewed by a local reporter when he at young age arrived to the NHL. The interview ended with the reporter asking Mats if there's anything he's lacking from Sweden. Now, the combination of being not too good at English and being in love with "Göteborgs Rapé" resultet in the following comment by Mats:
- Well, I really miss a good rape on a sunday morning.
I am very pleased that Mats works as a professional hockey player and not as a diplomat.

Are you ghana go my way?

This is my third day in Ghana and so far so good. Although the internet connection is not what we hoped for due to constant power failure I'm having a good time here. Poverty is very evident but it strikes me that people are still very happy and friendly. There's a fund raising show on Swedish TV4 this Friday, and they're actually going to air it from a village nearby here in Ghana. Too bad I'm leaving on Thursday, it would be pretty nice to be in the audience for that show.

There are quite a few people coming and going in the training here, mostly it consists of myself, Mark and Washington. The guys are doing a good job so far.

I talked to the big boss of the plant here today (born in Sicilly and raised in England) and he told me that the beggars are making pretty good money. He also told me about this one beggar that he knows, owns three taxi's here. So while he's begging for money his guys are briniging in additional money with his cars.

It's very clear to me that money is not the top prority when it comes to making the people in Ghana happy, it's more life itself that brings joy. Although the poverty is very evident in certain places, people manages to do the best out of the situation without any whining (as we tend to do in Sweden).